‘Out, Out—’
BY ROBERT FROST
BY ROBERT FROST
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
He saw all was spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
He saw all was spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
This poem is by Robert Frost, the man who totally did not write that poem about Santa Claus. I think that this poem is AP Lit worthy mostly because I googled "AP Lit worthy poems" and this was on a site that was like "top 20 must read poems for AP Lit students", but also because we have talked about him in class. So, instead of being basic I decided to take the poem less read, and use this one. This poem is in essence about, well after actually reading it, I'm quite confused as to what the deep meaning is. It;s probably something to do with the fact that people only care about matters that involve them since as soon as this boy died, they just "turned to their affairs", essentially forgetting that this personified saw had "snarrled and rattled" this boy's hand off. This was a very dark poem and honestly I was surprised because I guess I have not really read and Robert Frost poems, so I expected them to be less dark. The saw in this poem may represent something like society wherein the boy would represent freedom of speech or ideas or something and tis like society has a mind of its own (its something that shouldn't usually act out of its own will) and so it immediatley killed this boy''s hopes and dreams (and literally killed him) as soon as he got excited about something. So this poem seems to maybe be about censored society, although there is a high chance that it is actually something else. Another unusual aspect of this poem is that it reads much like a short story, when in fact, its a poem!!! The fact that the boy "must have given the hand" seems to connect back to this idea of society, its like when people blame the victim for the accident like in rapes or what not. THen there is the line from the woman who simply says "supper". THis could be a commentary on the role of women in society, as if they are only there to provide for the rest of us, in this case the boy. Then since she seemed to not even have a reaction to the fact that this kids hand was just chopped off, it also seems like a comment on women as if they are simply mechanical beings made to serve a single purpose, not that I think that Robert Frost thinks this about women, in fact he is probably using this charectirization to bring to light a prexisting stereotype.
So yeah, just like in everything we ever read, I has decided that my interpretation of this poem is that it is a comment on the stereoptypes in sociery, as well as the prevalence of censorship and general creativity disrupting that occurs within it.
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